At my small uncle's home tonite. He is suffering from a cancer problem, and has some problem with Seberang Jaya Hospital's junior Doctor today. Please read the letter he has written and sent to The Star Newspaper, and he will send another letter to hospital.
I am a cancer patient (in fact suffering from three types, namely colon, skin and lymph nodes being the latest). For the past seven years, I have been getting good follow-up treatment from the Specialists (Klinik Pakar Dua) in Seberant Jaya Hospital without much problem, especially from the Specialist Surgeon, Mr. XXXX.
But not for the latest experience. I was there on 19 May 2010 for a CT Scan and on 8 June 2010, I went to the hospital for further consultation with a Medical Officer (MO) in Klinik Pakar Dua, Dr. XXXX. During the consultation with her, I was informed of this growth, a tumour near my chest area and this was further confirmed from another X-ray I did at a private hospital. I also had specifically asked this attending MO to refer me for follow-up surveillance treatment in Penang General Hospital. During the discussion, she mentioned I was to be referred to Chest Clinic there, and had specifically asked me to collect the referral letter from her today, on 14 June 2010, appointment time was at 3.30pm. She has also mentioned, she would personally make the appointment at Chest Clinic in Penang General hospital for me. However, it was a total disappointment as she not only fail to provide the letter, at the same time mentioned that the Chest Clinic can only see me in July 2010 or to come the next time to Seberang Jaya hospital in July, just to ‘try my luck’ in meeting with the visiting Specialist during that time.
My questions are as follows:
1) Why, during the appointment date and as agreed earlier on 8 June 2010, the referral letter was not provided
2) How did she come to the conclusion that the Chest Clinic in Penang General Hospital can only see me in July 2010
3) Why did she again propose for me to visit Seberang Jaya Hospital in July to see if I can ‘meet’ the visiting Specialist. Does this not contradict with her earlier proposal (point 2).
4) My situation is quite critical I suppose, and a confirmation is needed soon, to decide the next course of treatment to be taken. But why must I wait until Mid July, one month later to meet/consult a Specialist in Penang General hospital for supposedly a biopsy treatment, to confirm whether this tumour is malignant, and what further treatment to be taken.
5) Why a CT Scan was done which confirms that there is the tumour and a further confirmation, a biopsy treatment was denied then.
A person’s life could be saved if proper treatment is given earlier, and special attention is given on cases like this. We have been hearing the government’s slogan, ‘People First’ Performance Now’ but is the hospital practicing this? I doubt that now.
Personally, I cannot comprehend this, why a CT Scan was given to me, a cancer patient, and later denied me a further, immediate treatment. This is causing me a lot of mental torture, and my health is affected further with this inconsistency.
I hope the Hospital and the Medical Officer in charge would be able to give me a full answer on this, and here, I would like to stress here that time is critical. The reason I write this is to highlight the predicament I am facing, and I am sure, there are more patients out there could possible face the same problem.
Yours Sincerely,
SIGNED-CHOONG FM
CHOONG FOH MIN
An Ex-Government Office/Cancer Patient
CHOONG FOH MIN
3, LORONG MACHANG BUBOK 7,
TAMAN MACHANG BUBOK,
14000 BUKIT MERTAJAM
MOBILE NUMBER: 012-4735870
1 comment:
There are many reasons for such a delay in treatment plan, especially in Malaysia where a patient can only be consulted by a specialist in larger hospital through referral.
Most probably is that the Chest Specialist's schedule is too busy and cannot accommodate more patients. This happens quite frequently (my father waited for 2 months to get his eye treated by an opthalmologist )because Malaysia hospitals are always in shortage of clinical specialist.
To make thing worse, the MO at Seberang Jaya did not confirm with the Chest Clinic in Penang General Hospital concerning your uncle's referral before she made such an appointment with your uncle. When she found out it's impossible to schedule your uncle to the Chest Clinic, all she did was to ask your uncle to wait for luck(in July 2010).
However,there is absolutely no excuse for her failure in providing a referral clinical summary letter because she can do that in just a few hours.
I didn't know what type of cancer your uncle is suffering from. I think the lymph nodes enlargement in his chest ( or mediastinum region) should require a thoracic endoscopy biopsy soon to distinguish whether it is just an inflammatory reaction due to infection (e.g. TB lymphadenopathy) or it is the invasion of cancer (lymph node metastasis)
Queen Elizabeth Hospital(QEH) in KK has become the center for invasive chest procedure such as bronchoscopy or mediastinal(thoracic) endoscope. Dr Jamalul Azizi Abdul Rahaman , the head of chest department in QEH has quite an experience with chest tumors. Although it's far from Penang, but might as well try to consult him if possible.
http://www.jknsabah.gov.my/hospital/hqe/respiratori/index.htm
Anyway, best of luck to your uncle!
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